Marking Your Spot

 

Marking Your Spot

He hands me his latest find, a bookmark, photo of a cat,

calicoed and turned towards the camera as if posed.

The tree-edged yard framed by the window

that back-lights the translucent vein-webbed ears.

 

It is a fancy cat, with a beribboned neck.

Loved enough to be photographed.

Like Fancy the cat, who lived in the house Eric and I bought on 10^th Street,

and who rests in our backyard.

 

I had been told by the previous owner at the closing on the house

where the unmarked grave was located.

Among a thicket of sweet shrub.  Or was it forsythia?

Don’t dig too deep.

 

That next summer, warning forgotten,

I found where Miss Mildred and her daughter had placed Fancy.

A dark stain in the soil of the forsythias I was splitting out

stopped me from laboring further.

 

Now, tucked between the edge of the patio

and the row of Japanese privit

that years ago replaced the forsythia,

a remnant of marble, half hidden in the underbrush, to remember.

 

For Jim McGuire

Christmas Letter 2020

7 Dec 2020

Greetings from Gadsden!

Let me say this first:  I will not miss 2020 when it is over.  I will remember it forever, having been shaped by it in odd and startling ways, but I will not miss it.

Eric and I have small circles of chosen pandemic people we see regularly: my mom, whom I, masked & socially distanced from, happily take breakfast to every Sunday morning and together with Eric, handle yard work and various other tasks for; and our closest friends, a family of six, who live near us, and with whom we maintain a 10+ year tradition of Saturday night dinner. We have perfected Saturday Supper Club to maintain our sanity during the pandemic:  extreme social distancing with masks while outdoors, regardless of the temperature. We’ve had some incredible meals together, despite the complications.  Most recently we enjoyed salmon, mushroom-stuffed rice balls, glazed green beans, and miso soup in the bay of their two-car garage.  Both doors were rolled wide open, camp chairs were placed 20+ feet apart near the opening, and we were warmed by the flame of a portable Craftsman propane  flame thrower heater. There may also have been wine and bourbon…

Because of the lack of certain items in the grocery stores at the onset of the pandemic, and an initial fear of shopping, I started a small garden. Not a huge one, but enough of a garden to supplement our food supply with fresh tomatoes, various peppers, garlic, green onions, oregano, thyme, and lots and lots of basil. Eric would often have to help me tie up the tomatoes, as they outgrew my height very quickly. Every morning before work, I would go out to prune and weed and water. After work, I’d take a basket out and gather.  We had more than we needed, so we shared with family, friends, neighbors. That little garden produced up until two weeks ago, which is when I winterized the space. Eric has recently shared with me his idea to build a type of portable raised-bed that employs bales of hay in the bottoms ...a type of Hugelkulture.  I’m totally game.  If only there was some way I could grow toilet paper and Clorox wipes...

Our families are doing well. Mom, at 83, continues to work full time at the library in Rainbow City. My sister and I do her shopping for her, so her whereabouts are simple...home or work.  Vicki and I are the only ones allowed in her home, and we religiously practice the holy trinity of the pandemic:  mask, social distance, hand wash.  Eric‘s family is doing well out in Kansas and Missouri. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we have not traveled to see them this year. We miss them, but see them virtually.

We still live with our Catahoula, Booker, in our little downtown bungalow overlooking the wildlife park.  The leaves have finally fallen from the trees and the kudzu has died back for the season, giving us a winter view that we dream about during the summer months...from our kitchen window we watch the egrets dance above Lake Gadsden, the late afternoon sun turning the water a shimmering amber and gold.

Hope this finds you safe, happy & healthy.

Big love,

This time, last year.

Last week, Eric and I were reminiscing about how this time last year we were in Atlanta for the American Library Association's Mid-Winter convention.  And how one night we (and Amanda & Jeremy) had dinner and drinks with Joshilyn Jackson ('cause she and Amanda are BFFs), how one day Eric met and chatted with Senator John Lewis during his book signing, and how on the final day of the convention we were witnesses to the magic show of NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, a magic show during which Mr. Harris stunned us all with one of the biggest slights of hand I've ever seen (or not seen, because hey, slight of hand).

But once we came back from convention, we got down to the business of having our retaining wall and second patio built.  We went from this:

To this, with the work of our friends from Finlayson Landscape Design:

And then, after moving some plants I'd been saving for the spot, plus the dawn of a new season, this:

Yes, that's Booker in the middle of the planting bed.  With his stick.  The three of us have enjoyed sharing that space with our people.

2016 Christmas Letter

At Christmas, I like to send a yearly recap to all of my friends and relatives who are now scattered in the different places that life has landed them.  And with life being what it is (life), some years are filled with more milestones than others.  2016 has been one of those years.

Holiday Greetings!
Since I have no idea where to begin this 2016 recap, I’ll start with the passing of my daddy.   He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last November after becoming ill with a multitude of symptoms (almost all of which he kept to himself).  Because of his age and overall health, surgery was not an option.  And knowing that the devastating side effects of chemo and radiation would only hasten the inevitable, dad chose to be cared for at home.   The man who throughout the years taught me important things like how to connect with people through conversation (he never met a stranger), how to rake and burn a big pile of leaves without catching the neighborhood on fire, and how to back up a 24 foot U-Haul truck with a car hitch attached to the back without running someone over, also taught me about how to listen to and take care of someone I love who I know is dying.  Until his last breath in the very early hours of the morning on June 8^th, I learned from him how to be a better person.  Lordy, but I loved having him in my life…

 On the Work Front

We finally developed our GPL Park!  We’ve only been dreaming about it since 2008.  But after a series of successful grants and increased public interest this past year, we were able to get a sidewalk, security lighting, sod, raised planting beds, benches and a gazebo.  I had trees and shrubs delivered this morning…

 Our library hosted the annual state library convention in April.  This was a noteworthy achievement for the GPL considering Gadsden doesn’t have a convention center.  We were only able to pull the whole thing off with the help of every single GPL staff member working their fingers to the bone, and almost every local downtown partner loaning us space for events and breakout sessions.  400+ librarians, vendors and authors converged on Gadsden for three days.  We survived.  It was marvelous.

We are about to join forces with friend and educator Chip Rowan to bring his Beautiful Rainbow Catering Company & Garden into the library as a permanent partner in our cafe.  Chip works with young adults with cognitive disabilities, teaching culinary and business skills for future employment.  He is currently working through the Gadsden City School system, but hopes to one day become an independent employer of some of his graduates.  We are renovating our existing café to hold an educational kitchen, a dining area for guests, a classroom/boardroom for additional learning, and an office for the day-to-day transactions of running a café/catering company.  Because Chip and his guys currently grow much of the food they use in their catering jobs, we have agreed to turn over all eight of our raised planting beds that are located in our GPL Park to the Company.  These young chefs-in-training have catered several events for us this year.  They are excited about the amazing food that they create, and are just as excited about sharing it with our community.  I am looking forward to spending my lunch time in their café come January of 2017!

 The final event in our Gadsden Reads is this Tuesday.   With the help of attorney Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, we are dedicating a memorial to Bunk Richardson, a man wrongly lynched here in 1906.  This all came about through our choosing of Stevenson’s book Just Mercy for our 2016 reading initiative which set into motion a community-wide discussion of the justice system as it pertains to ethnicity, mental health, socioeconomics, gender, and age. We are now openly talking about our local history of marginalizing certain groups within our community.  It has not been an easy series of programs.  Some folks are happy to finally be heard.  Others question why we’re “stirring things up.”  It’s just shameful and wrong to keep sweeping these things under the rug.

 On the Home Front

2016 was another DIY year for us.  I spent a great deal of time staining and painting the rafters and ceiling of the patio Eric built back in 2015.  We ripped out the dropped ceiling of laundry room to expose the old beadboard that was hidden underneath.  Eric built a sliding barn door to close off the laundry from the kitchen should we ever need to.  We added buried electrical out to the garage for a security system.  And after a lifetime of using ice cube trays, I have an icemaker in my fridge.  Eric installed it I’m sure because of some deep desire to provide ice cubes for his wife and dog.   As much as I am enjoying the ice, it still seems unnatural to have so much at my disposal.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday and much love,
c

The One Where Dad Dies Twice

Since Dad passed in June, I’ve not dreamt of him...until night before last.  Eric and I have recently made a habit of watching an episode of Friends each night before bed.  Night before last, we watched the episode entitled The One Where Nana Dies Twice.  Without giving a full summary of what happens in the episode, suffice it to say that Monica and Ross’ grandmother dies twice (in a forced, sitcom-y way) in the show.  

Later that night, I dreamt that I went over to Mom and Dad’s house to do yardwork and Dad was sleeping in their back bedroom with mom standing nearby.  In my dream, Dad had already died once, but was alive again with the understanding that he would be passing away a second time soon.  I felt a joy at getting this second chance to spend time with him.  But, I was trying to be super quite so as to not wake him because we had plans to take him and Mom to Red Lobster later that afternoon.  But wake him, I did.  And when he opened his eyes, he smiled up at mom, happy to see her.  I asked if I needed to stop doing yard work so we could go to Red Lobster and Mom said no, that I should finish doing my work, and that she would feed Dad “two big pieces of chocolate cake” to keep him till we went to eat.  And Dad’s smile got bigger...

This dream made me think of a dream Vicki had about Dad not long after he died.  In her dream, we were all sitting at the dining room table at Mom and Dad’s house, with Dad at his customary head of the table spot.  Dad was talking about something to all of us and Vicki looked over at him and said, “I wish you hadn’t died.”  Dad stopped saying what he was saying, looked at her and responded quietly, “I thought we were pretending?”

I started working on an expanded obituary blog post for Dad right after we posted the concise version in the Gadsden Times.  It has been harder lately for me to revisit it to finish, but eventually I will.  He has such a story, one that cannot be easily summed up. 

Post Script:  In keeping with dreams of Dad, Mom recently shared a dream she had of Dad right before he died.   Her dream was real-time and happened when she was dozing in her chair after having gotten Dad settled in for sleep with his meds.  In the dream, she looked out the front windows from her chair and saw Dad, with his white hair flowing, running down the driveway with the neighbor’s dog Ike.  Ike was a regular visitor at Mom and Dad’s house until he was killed one morning a couple of years ago. Mom and Dad had often commented on missing Ike because it felt like Ike had adopted them.  I’d like to think that dream meant that Ike was waiting on Dad…

A Patio for The Bungalow

Remember when we retained the Bungalow backyard back in May?  That project was the first of many projects that were recommended to us by Liz Wood Finlayson of Finlayson Landscape Designs (FLD) in the master plan to make our backyard more usable.  The original plan was to build a deck as the first layer off of the house, with a hard-scaped level below it.  For many reasons (drainage, longevity, etc.), we chose to put in a concrete patio for our first layer instead.  So, once we built the retaining wall and installed a drainage system we designed ourselves, we were ready for concrete.

Concrete work that requires something more than opening up a sack of Quikrete and mixing with water is more work than I want to commit to, so our concrete was poured, stamped, scored and sealed on two of the hottest days of the summer by someone who does concrete work for a living.  The pouring went quickly, but still, a bit too slowly for the setting time of the concrete in the heat we had.  Despite the prep work Eric had done to ensure the correct position of the brackets for the uprights,  the guys had trouble remembering where and how to set them.  They were set incorrectly, then corrected as best as they could be set before the point of no turning back.  Thank goodness Eric was home to help.

Several weeks later, friends came to help raise the uprights and the beams.

A Washington Crossing the Delaware moment.

On nights after work and on weekends, Eric attached rafters, placed decking and added the metal roof.  And we christened her many times with wine and beer during the process.

 

What we began with in 2010.

State of the Bungalow Address, March 16, 2015

First we saw these, which always bring hope:

Crocus at The Bungalow.

Then mom thought I should have gran's tea cup and saucer.  Which. Was. Perfect.

Then, I couldn't wait any longer, so I started digging a ditch to divert water away from the house.  This ditch will be widened and turned into a dry creek bed after we build the deck.

But then, I was so excited about the new planting beds along the fence, I transplanted a gazillion plants and put down store-bought pine straw (ouch) while it rained the next day.  I also added some rock foot bridges.  Booker thinks that I did all of this for him. 

Then a stink (stank) bug got in the house and Booker worried it to death.  Poor stank bug.  No, it survived his pawin' and snufflin' long enough for me to liberate it to the front yard.

And then yesterday evening, after excavating about a foot down at the back of the house for the new deck, Eric and I sat with Booker.  Rather, Booker sat on Eric.

Oh, and did I mention the deck?

Behind the Scenes: The Week Between Christmas & New Year's 2014

Remember that week between Christmas and New Year's Eve of 2014?  You know, that week we chipped off the plaster from one of The Bungalow's basement walls to expose the brick, built two Carol-crushing, massive shelving units for the basement, and then tore out the paneling of the laundry room to make way for the new plumbing installation?  Yup, that would be the one...

Not so loose plaster.

Mostly done.  Love that brick.

Beds for the bunker Shelves for the basement.

Organizing will have to wait.

Yep, that's beadboard on the ceiling.  We're keeping that.

One Thing Leads to Another: A State of the Bungalow Address, 10 January 2015

After the wedding in November, Eric and I finally had the time to get some much needed plumbing work done on The Bungalow to improve our water volume.  With the help of Keith Hathcock, owner of K. D. & J. Plumbing of Gadsden, we made a game plan that would start with the least expensive improvement and work our way up to the more costly improvements.  So, we began with paying the City of Gadsden's Water Department to replace our water tap from the main street line to our meter.  Our water volume was only improved by about ten percent with this replacement, so we set up an appointment with Keith to have his guys come out to replace the main line from the meter to The Bungalow (using 1" PEX just in case we ever decided to put in an irrigation system in our landscape).  I almost cried at how improved the water volume was after that installation (we could finally flush the toilet while running the bathroom faucet AND have good water volume in the shower...something we have not ever experienced in our four and a half years at The Bungalow).  But, our home projects couldn't stop there...

Right before we replaced that main line from the meter to the house, our washer went out.  So, knowing that we really wanted stackable HE front-loading units in our laundry room, we went price comparing and shopping...and ended up with an amazing price on some high falutin' Matag machines.  But, when they were delivered, we discovered that the electrical outlet was not high enough in the wall and that the plumbing was unsightly and on the wrong side of the space.  So, after a phone call to (and some advice from) our favorite electrician, Eric moved the electrical outlet so that we could use our new machines.  A week or so later, after Christmas and New Year's had passed (and many other home projects that Eric and I did to prepare for the forthcoming projects...that is another blog), we set up yet another appointment with K. D. & J. to bring our washer lines up to code and add a washer/dryer box in the wall.  Two days before the K. D. & J. guys came out for that installation, a storm moved through the area, knocking out the power on our end of the street, and, unbeknownst to us until the temperatures began to drop considerably the next night, fried the transformer on our heating unit. So, on the same day that we had plumbers out to work on the plumbing, we had NAPCO (who fixed the A/C for me the first summer in The Bungalow while Eric was in Africa) out to fix our heat.

Last night, Eric and I spent a romantic Friday evening picking up sheetrock, mud, insulation and various other items at Lowe's.  We may have had a glass of adult beverage when we got home...

K. D. & J. digging new water line trench.

1" PEX

New cutoff outside the front door.

Temporary laundry room.  Not for long...

Pre-demo.

Bad Transformer=No Heat!

Reese (sp?) from NAPCO.

New washer/dryer box and new plumbing!